The News, a magazine style news weekly, began publication in Bronxville, NY on April 25, 1912. It was owned by more than 20 of “the best known and most prominent men in Bronxville, each of whom has only a comparatively small interest.” The publisher, the Eastchester News Company, announced that it had “no axes to grind,” was “absolutely free of any entanglements and it is not a personal organ.” Its purpose was “to promote and maintain the prosperity and happiness of Bronxville, Scarsdale and Tuckahoe.” By its fourth issue, The News had become the official newspaper of Bronxville, supplanting The Bronxville Review, controlled by the family of William Lawrence (the father of suburban Bronxville), and taking pride that it was “not a ‘one man’ paper.”
The short-lived News concentrated on village infrastructure, most particularly the need to eliminate Bronxville’s “deadly” railroad grade crossing, and took issue with positions taken by the Lawrence family. In its first months, the paper profiled prominent villagers and government officials, including current and former presidents (mayors), including Frank R. Chambers, William P. H. Bacon, Alfred E. Smith, Leonard Kebler and H. Ward Leonard. Bronxville artists were also featured: Will H. Low, A. Phimister Procter, G. H. Smillie, Walter Clark, William Smedley and Hobart Nichols.
After 17 months, The News ceased publication asserting that it had “fulfilled the purpose for which it was organized,” but noting that “local papers of this kind do not pay expenses, and must be supported by those who own them.”